Notes/ Okay one more up. I wanted to get it up today and I'll actually make it too. Nice! I thought I knew where this one going when I started the chapter, and it did all that, but it also ended up quite different than I had planned. I still like. I'm actually very happy with this chapter. But it ended up honestly being a mostly pure fluff chapter, and is a TON of dialogue.

Arcee had been alone in the common room, when Bumblebee had driven inside, in his vehicle mode, after nearly a day without showing a signal. He was obviously unhurt, but bore a heavy layer of dust from the road, and lack thereof. He had relayed that he traveled at least eight hundred miles, and at first said little else about it. He had sat down on the bench near the control board, and stared at the floor.

Arcee stared at him now, her gaze unblinking, as she tried hard to read his expression. Anger? Yes, there was some of that there. Sadness? Greif? Perhaps a little, but hidden to anyone who might not have known him as well as she did. Defeat? Complete utter defeat. Yes, that was the one she saw most. He looked so very close to being entirely defeated this time. She sat herself down on the bench near him and for a moment neither said a thing.

Finally, Arcee dared to quietly ask, "'Bee, where did you go? What happened?"

He didn't even look up at her, staring at the floor as she answered shakily, "I had hoped so much that the war was over. It should have been over. I was so sure… had so much hope this time… but there will be no ceasefire."

"What? Well we haven't started trying for one yet, not formally. Honestly I don't know. At this point anything could happen, given that recent attack." Arcee groaned a little, and raised a hand to her faceplate. "Any negotiations we try for now, would mean directly negotiating with Starscream, and I can't think of anyone who is eager for that honor. At least with Megatron, we knew what it was we were dealing with most of the time."

"'Scream won't end it," Bumblebee raided his head at least and looked up trembling slightly. "I tried to convince him… said he could finally do the right thing… have a future… be remembered as the one that finally did this… He wants to be recognized, remembered. I told him he could be…. Still no chance. He's in this for the feeling of power, and we will never get him now…"

"Wait, 'Bee… you went off to deal with Starscream, by yourself?" Arcee turned to stare him in the optics, giving a look to let him know just how serious her concern was. "Leaving no word, and bringing no backup? You could have been hurt… he might have killed you!"

"But he didn't kill me," bumblebee stared back at her, that same defeated look still overshadowing the growing defiance in his optics. "He just rambled on laughing, and kicking the ground. Yelled a few insults, acted like a human child might, and flew away. He was always unhinged, 'Cee, but this was bad. He's losing his mind and that's saying a lot."

"Maybe the troops will overthrow him," Arcee laughed a little, but she knew it was far from funny. "Who's next in line? Soundwave? Him, we could probably talk terms with. I'm not so scared of him."

She considered for a moment and then said with a shake of her head, "if he were to declare a continued war on the Autobots, at least we'd finally have an opponent who would do it quietly."

'Bee slowly let a smile show on his face that that last comment, but Arcee turned serious again quickly and put her hands on her teammate's shoulders. "I mean it though. 'Bee, you be careful. Don't do anything this ridiculously foolish again."

"I'll try not to." Bumblebee got up from the bench against the wall. "Thanks for listening, Arcee. I know that was stupid, but I just had to try. I know you know that."

She nodded and he turned to walk away. "I badly need a shower and a good recharge. I'll see you in a few hours and I'll grab a building assignment from Bulkhead."

After he had gone, Arcee sat for many long moments, just staring at the inactive monitor and the time gage underneath it. It was sometime in the early hours of what they might have called 'morning' back on Earth. She sent a comm quickly out to the two that were still searching for Bumblebee. Letting them know he was back, unharmed and had been far further than either would have thought to look. When a brief reply of 'Turning around' came back in over the monitor, she backed away from it, and made her way down the hallway toward her living quarters.

Arcee's living space, like most on Cybertron, and certainly like any inside an Autobot base installation, was purely functional for the most part. She lay flat on her recharge station for a long time, unable to power down her processor and recharge. It seems like far too long, that she lay still, needing the recharge and knowing it, feeling her body's need for some rest. But she simply couldn't. Too many thoughts and uncertainties rattled through her mind, begging her attention, forcing her to notice each one.

She sat up again, grabbed a data-pad, from the top of a stack of three of them on the simple wall mounted shelf, and lay back down to balance the thing on her knees and flip through it a while. This one was full mostly of photographs. Pictures she had saved from Earth. Miko took pictures all the time on that cellphone she never seemed to put down, and she had always been happy to share them all. There were so many taken inside the old base in Nevada. She hadn't realized she would miss the place, but she actually did.

She giggled a while over pictures of the human children, constantly posing for the camera, being silly. Each of them must have posed at some point at least once with each of the 'bots; sitting on shoulders, or photographed resting on a foot here and there. She flipped through the photo files and found a picture of herself, leaning down to fit in the frame, little Raf held upside-down by her outstretched hands. Miko had dared her. Raf had agreed to do it, laughing. Jack sat on the seat of her vehicle mode at least once, grinning. Once he was sitting backwards, and faking confusion over how to correctly ride a motorcycle. Ratchet looked just plain cranky as ever in the few he had been caught in, but there was one that showed the hint of a grin. Clearly he'd tried to hide that. He always did., lest anyone catch on that he could actually smile or laugh. Miko had caught him once, laughing at a joke he denied laughing at, and of course there she had been, camera phone in hand.

Arcee flipped again to the next image, and for a moment she just lay reclined on the recharge station speechless. She stared at a clear photo of Optimus Prime, caught at one of the very rare times he seemed to ever actually sit anywhere and do nothing at all. She'd had no idea a photo of Prime actually existed, or at least none of his 'bot-mode. He had always taken far greater measures then the rest, to avoid being seen and filmed. And in the base, it seemed he had so little connection to the children… She began to laugh slightly as she studied the image. The angle was quite odd, but of course it would be, taken from the floor, by someone so relatively small. She assumed at first that Miko had taken the picture, but looked again and saw that that was not so. The tiny, colorful girl was perched grinning in one huge hand, legs dangling over a couple fingertips. Prime actually looked almost amused. Arcee wiped away a stream of washer fluid as it pooled in one of her optics.

She got up to set the pad back on the shelf, and lay back down to rest again. But still recharge was impossible. After what seemed like hours but must only have really been fifteen minutes, she got up again. Picking up the pad again, she left the room, letting the door close behind her, and walked slowly down the hall, trying to keep her steps quiet. The base was dimly lit with only its backlighting powered on through the night cycle. She knew that two 'bots should be pulling in anytime and wondered if perhaps they were back already. She debated tapping on their doors to check in, but decided against it, in case they were already in and recharging.

Arcee muffled her favorite human curse, as her arm slammed hard against something in the dimness. She nearly dropped the data-pad, as her left hand automatically grabbed for her right arm. Cursing again silently she stood beneath a dim blue light and looked around. She had slammed her wrist hard against the edge of a disassembled work station, stored in the hall for lack of a better place to put the thing. She had known full well it was there and banged the thing anyway. She shook her head and checked her wrist in the dim light. She shrugged. Not bleeding, so she was not going to worry about it.

She had been meaning to sit and look over more photos, in the common room, but a bright light shining ahead caught her attention. Was there someone else up? Maybe that night no one could get any recharge. She hoped for a second her clumsy thud against that table had not woken anyone. She walked on.

It was the medbay that was lighted. Arcee realized that as she got closer to it and the couple of doors near it. That door was, as typical, left open, and the light shone out into the hall brightly. Not sure why, Arcee approached the door, and then slowly made her way inside.

With some surprise, she found Knockout, left alone in there and sitting up quite well by himself, both legs in front of him, and clearly one still entirely immobile. The monitors had been detached from his body, and he balanced a data-pad on one folded arm, while flipping the pages with the other hand. Near his head, on the worktable, sat a decent stack of other pads.

Arcee had come and gone from the medbay many times in the last days, helping out with a mostly unconscious and clearly incapacitated patient. She had taken a shift, sitting quietly to listen to monitors, and had not been uneasy in the least about it. She had gladly talked with him when he had been awake. But even then, while conscious and conversing he had been quite clearly weakened and ready to drop into recharge just as soon as he was left alone again. Finding him now sitting up, reading someone on the pad, she thought he looked so much stronger. She had never been alone with him before in the time since he had moved to their side, and been assigned to the base. The time she watched over him in power down, didn't count. Arcee backed up slightly to lean against the wall closest to the door. She wondered if it was wrong that she still felt fear welling up while so close to him.

"I see I'm not alone after all in my inability to recharge then," Knockout said. He was smiling at her slightly. It was not a threatening kind of smile she had so often seen on his face, but still she backed closer to the wall anyway.

"Yeah," she answered, forcing her voice to remain even. It would be wrong of her to run out of there, and she knew that. So she stayed still and made herself smile back. "On Earth, they call this insomnia I think."

"I believe so… though I never studied human language half as much as you might have done…"

"What are you reading?" Arcee asked him causally. She made herself step forward again, away from the wall. She scolded herself for being ridiculous.

Knockout closed the pad and put it down within his reach. "Oh, just a pile of stuff Ratchet loaned me to read. Mostly medical and science related. I talked to him a bit earlier, mentioned that my knowledge in some areas is honestly a bit lacking. He brought this back for me. Said since I'm going to be stuck in here a while, I might as well study."

"Sounds… interesting," Arcee replied hesitantly. She had never been much for intense study on anything really. More for hands on learning and shooting as needed.

"Oh it is," Knockout said, and she found herself actually amazed to realize he was actually interested in reading those pads. She let her head drop a second in embarrassment. Why should she have been so surprised to find that he was genuinely interested in his job? She sat down on the bench, daring to let her guard down far more.

"I can feel my foot again," he told her. His expression turned to one of excitement. "Ratchet thinks I'll walk again very soon. And my body armor is all rebuilt, ready for reattachment, probably today. The connections are repairing themselves well. It'll take a bit of hard work, but I think I'll live."

He laughed. Arcee giggled a bit.

Still holding the data-pad in her right hand, she rubbed her right wrist as it started to ache from the recent thump. She had thought it would have simply gone unnoted, but Knockout was looking straight from her face to her right arm in seconds. She shook her head slightly. Just leave it to a medical officer to notice even that small a thing.

"Arcee, what happened? You've hurt yourself?"

"Not anything to worry about," she brushed it off. She hardly thought a thing of it herself. I've been hurt far worse. All those years of battling the… hmm… never mind."

"What happened?"

Arcee laughed and shook her head at her own mishap. Sarcastically she answered. "Oh it was a truly epic battle this time. Myself against an enraged, unused worktable. It was dark, the thing came out of nowhere. It was terrible, but I managed to finally escape without calling for backup" She shook her head again and looked at the floor, rubbing her wrist again as it started to hurt worse. "Usually poor Bulkhead is our resident walking accident."

"Would you let me take a look at that?"

Arcee was conflicted as she sat still on the bench. Her feeling of danger had all but vanished slowly as she talked with him awhile. She had even come so close to forgetting he had been the enemy and nearly slipped with her words, before catching herself, in worry of offending him. He was looking at her intently, and obviously the expression was far from threatening. He had never threatened anyone since he had defected to her team. But the optics that studied her, looking for any sign of damage worth worrying about, were the bright red of so many enemies she had learned to dodge, and shoot at and stare down, with her senses on high alert. She got up slowly and stepped closer to him.

"Well it's not bleeding at least," he said, holding her arm gently to look at the underside of the wrist. "Doesn't look like any of the little connections to the hand were damaged. Certainly nothing broken. I can't imagine though why you would say this is nothing. Arcee, you've torn right through your armor plating and clear to the wiring."

"It's still just a small gash. I figure why panic?"

"That would have to have been a very sharp corner. Hmm… It looks like the impact cracked the armor down a seam. Ooh that must hurt like something awful." He looked sympathetic, but she again only brushed it off.

"It's a simple but needed repair," Knockout said, almost scolding like any other medic might well have done. "I can fix you up in minutes."

"but… you…"

He looked at her, shaking his head. "I'm a bit disabled for the moment, obviously. But I can still work on such a simple thing as this."

She stood still for a long moment, now holding her injured wrist again and eventually leaning over to set her pad down behind on the bench, before she ended up dropping it. Knockout looked at her with a serious expression, before he quietly asked, "do you trust me?"

Arcee nodded hesitantly, surprising herself by doing so. Following his direction, she handed him a little welding tool from the worktable, and cautiously let her take her arm again

"It was not a spur of the moment choice I made, you know," Knockout said, speaking unexpectedly, as he looked down, working carefully. "I didn't exactly just jump without thinking."

Arcee gave a look of confusion, that she hoped he would read as such. But she remembered quickly that he could not currently she her expression. "Sorry?"

"Changing sides, I mean. I know you've wondered, but never really dared to ask."

Arcee looked at the floor for a moment, considering. She looked back up at him, though he was still intently looking at this work. "It never was only about a fear of being fired straight out an airlock, was it?"

"Oh, I have little doubt at all, that Starscream would have fired me out the airlock, just as I said. He had little use left for me. But turning on him… I did it because I finally saw my chance. There had been other chances and each time I just walked away, backed out, doubted, feared that I might just be scrapped by at least one of you while you laughing thinking you had caught me in some game. Finally, it was now or never. I might well have died that day and I knew that. If I was going to die, I at least needed to try…"

Knockout let go of Arcee's arm. "Told you I could fix you up, good as new."

"Thank you. You are actually good at this."

He laughed slightly and shrugged at her. "That surprises you?"

"No. Well maybe… no, I suppose it doesn't."

"No more pain then? It shouldn't hurt nearly so much now?"

"It is better. Thank you.," Arcee replied gratefully.

"You're welcome." Knockout's expression changed suddenly from his typical confidence, which had started to resurface again, to one of doubt. "If I am to be honest, Arcee… It's no secret I get scared when I shouldn't. I was always somewhat of a laughing stock on the warship I must say, for the constant dodging gunfire and diving for the ground. But, that moment I said I was joining the 'winning team…" that was the most terrified I've ever been in my life."

Footsteps in the hall, and moving in the direction of the common area, caught her attention. The medbay had no windows. There were only a few small ones in the whole base. But she understood that it must have been morning by then. She stepped with some hesitation toward the door.

"I've got to run, grab a mission schedule. I think I'm on construction... You should try again to get a bit of recharge in. Ratchet is never one to take no for an answer on that one."

"I'm still quite perfectly wide awake," Knockout shrugged. "I have my reading to do."

"Recharge now, read later." Stepping back in to grab her nearly forgotten data-pad, Arcee walked out slowly, shaking her head.

She nearly bumped straight into Ratchet as she walked into the common room, and heading toward the mission board. He had walked into the room from a door at the other side of the room, and was probably on his way right across the room. Arcee stopped her forward motion before she crashed into the considerably bigger 'bot.

"I forgot you were always the one up first in the early hours," she commented.

"Indeed." He replied back, thoughtfully. "Though in this particular case I've been out of recharge much of the night."

Arcee looked up at him, almost dumbfounded by that point. "Seriously. Did no one get any rest in this base last night?"

The old medic considered. "Umm, I did hear two come in very late from the search mission. Doesn't sound like they actually slept much. I heard chatting at the far end of their hallway. Bulkhead's light was on a fair bit. 'Bee probably slept just fine. I was awake corresponding with Fowler for a while."

"Agent Fowler. Our old contact back in Nevada?"

Ratchet nodded briefly in silent confirmation, and then said, "he's planning a bit of a reunion, actually."

Arcee's interest was caught by that. She looked up at him in surprise and could not hide her excitement. "Reunion? You mean with the kids?"

"Exactly. I'll be returning to Earth in the next couple of days, obviously. While I've been back here Fowler's been busy, trying to get a few connections and call in some favors. Our second base is still standing. He and I work there, and Jack helps out on his weekends away from school. Raf's family has moved away to New Mexico. He can be picked up and driven back. Bumblebee would probably love to go and fetch him. Miko is back in Japan, but we can ground-bridge her. I'll send Bulkhead through the bridge so that he can pick her up somewhere in the city." We have all such a connection with those small humans, and they with us. Probably a bad idea to never see them again, just because Cybertron is rebuilding."

"You actually sound excited about this, Ratchet." Arcee tilted her faceplates up in a lovely grin at him. "I never thought I'd see it. The grumpy old doc-bot, actually excited to gather up the human children again."

"What can I say, Arcee. I suppose even I got attached at some point. I quite like them. And it's been four of their months now. I would bet that little Raf is bigger, and that hyper Miko is slightly less so."

"Keep me posted. When the time comes, I'll bring the team over." Arcee stopped dead for a second or two. "Oh… what will we do about Knockout?"

"Bring him," Ratchet answered as though it should have been obvious. "He's Autobot too."

Arcee found herself hesitating, her uncertainty creeping back in. She stumbled over words as she tried to express too many thoughts and ask too many questions at once. "Well yes, but not official yet… Do the kids even know about this… Miko hates him. She knocked him out once. Fowler is going to hit the roof, as they say, if we bring a 'con through the space-bridge."

"We'll figure that out later. Fowler will understand. There are such things as human wartime defectors too, you know. I think that meeting the kids and the agent, as an Autobot, could be good for our new teammate."

Arcee looked up into the optics of the bigger 'bot. She questioned silently and tried to imagine what thoughts he must have had. He always was so hard to read. "You really do trust him then, don't you? You believe in his wish for redemption?"

Ratchet looked down at her, and leaned down a bit, with one of his rare smiles across his faceplate. He nodded slowly at her. "Arcee, Prime believed him first, well before any of us. Redemption and a second chance is the right of any sentient being, and we all know he said that many times. I spoke to him once, not long before the end… he told me he knew of Knockout's wish for such redemption long before you saw him turn on Starscream. I never could see it myself, though I do wish could have. But somewhere, sometime, there had to have been a moment when his faith in the cause of conquest died. I'm not sure he will ever know exactly what that moment was himself. Anyone in his position, would only deny it awhile, try harder to be even worse, to prove they are the one to be feared, to ruin any chance they might have at the redemption they seek, because in all honestly it scares them to death."

"It sounds like you've known other defectors, personally."

"There were a few over the years. Each one's story quite different, but all of them confused, lost for a while, trying hard to prove themselves. They are always so scared when they first come over. Each fearing firstly that we will turn on them, blame them the first time something goes wrong. And secondly fearing that the 'cons will kill them for it, and offline us right along with them."

Arcee stood silently for a long moment, her processor filled with so many emotions. And that only grew worse as a new thought entered her mind at the thought of a coming reunion on Earth. For the second time in hours, she forced leaking washer fluid from her optics. "Ratchet… did anyone tell the kids yet, about the fate of Optimus Prime?"

The old medic nodded once very slightly. He looked just as saddened at the thought of actually speaking on the matter. "They keep in touch a bit, as you would have guessed. I informed Jack when I returned to Earth the last time. We called the others together. I was saddened and surprised at just how devastated each of them were. Miko especially."

He paused for a moment, clearly choosing his words, and then went on, quietly. "I realize only in hindsight that while they all loved him of course, little Miko had always been the one to try the hardest to impress him, to make him proud of her. She felt like she had so much less to offer and that only made her try harder and harder. I only wish he could have told her before we left for Cybertron, that he never thought she held less value."

Arcee laughed slightly, nodding her agreement, and smiling at old memories. "She was his littlest Wrecker."

"Reunion?" A voice from a doorway behind them, made both turn around. Arcee grinned and Ratchet groaned, to see Bulkhead in the doorway, with Smokescreen right behind him, clamoring for space. "What's this about a reunion, then?"